Long disregarded as a party drug, loved by hippies and alternative thinkers, LSD has been recently demonstrated to be much more than that. Being useful as anti depressive and in therapy against PTSD and other traumas. Now, another “power” of LSD has been uncovered: it potentiates brain plasticity, thereby improving memory and other cognitive processes.

Recently published work by Sidarta Ribeiro and colleagues has shown that LSD has positive effects on memory, and that this is mediated by brain plasticity. First, the researches performed behavioural experiments in both rats and humans to test memory after receiving LSD. In a novel object preference test, rats which received a single dose of LSD spent more time investigating new objects than rats which received saline. This indicates that LSD improved memory and cognition in rats, as preference for novel items instead of known ones is an indication for it.